🚢 Real-Time AIS Tracking System

A real-time maritime tracking system that simulates AIS (Automatic Identification System) data, validates it, and processes it using Kafka, PostgreSQL (PostGIS), and Docker.

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📌 How Does AIS Work?

AIS is an automatic tracking system used by ships to broadcast:

• Position (latitude/longitude)
• Speed & course
• Heading & destination
• MMSI (unique ship ID)

AIS data is received by terrestrial stations & satellites and used for real-time vessel tracking.

Source: NATO Shipping Centre

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📦 System Architecture

💡 Overview

This system simulates real-time AIS data, streams it using Kafka, processes it with Python services, and stores it in PostGIS for further analytics.

🛠️ Technologies Used

Component	Tech Stack	Purpose
Messaging	Kafka, Zookeeper	Stream AIS data
Storage	PostgreSQL + PostGIS	Store ship positions
Processing	Python, Kafka Consumers	Validate & enrich AIS data
Containerization	Docker, Docker Compose	Run the system in containers
Visualization	Elasticsearch (Future)	Real-time dashboards

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📌 System Components

1️⃣ Kafka Topics

Topic Name	Purpose
ais.raw.data	Raw AIS messages from ships
ais.valid.data	Valid AIS messages
ais.bad.data	Faulty or missing AIS data

2️⃣ Services

Service	Function
ais-producer.py	Generates & streams AIS data to Kafka
ais-validator.py	Filters invalid AIS data
ais-db-consumer.py	Stores valid AIS data in PostgreSQL

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🚀 Getting Started

1️⃣ Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/labibmnsr/ais-tracking.git
cd ais-tracking

👨‍💻 Contributing

1. Fork the repo
2. Create a new branch (git checkout -b feature-xyz)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m "Added xyz feature")
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature-xyz)
5. Open a pull request!